Tadepalli Lakshmi Kanta Rao, born on 16 November 1923 is a popular Telugu actor from Andhra Pradesh, India. He has acted in more than 400 Telugu mythological, social and folklore movies. He acted in a few Hindi, Kannada and Tamil movies also. In the 1960s he was the third force in Telugu cinema, behind N.T.Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageshwara Rao

Kanta Rao was very famous for portraying the role of Narada in mythological movies. He played other roles, notable being those of Lord Krishna, Arjuna, Panduraj and Lakshmana . Kanta Rao acted in a lot of folklore movies and was famous for his fencing and sword fighting. Most of these movies were directed by "Janapada Brahma" B. Vittalacharya.

Awards

Won the Rastrapati Award for the role of Lakshmana in Lava Kusha

He has been awarded the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award by the government of Andhra Pradesh for his acting achievements.

His book Anaganaga Oka Raakumaarudu won the Nandi Award for Best Book for the year 2007

The actor has been ailing from cancer for the past few months. With no proper financial support for treatment, he made a request for the people of the film industry and the government to lend him a helping hand. Chief Minister of AP has donated one lakh rupees from the Chief Minister’s fund to help the actor. However the response from the Telugu Film industry was poor.

The actor passed away at 09:50 PM IST at Yashoda Hospital, Hyderabad on March 22nd 2009. He was ailing from cancer for the past few months.

Deccan Radio pays tributes to Kanta Rao and here is his last interview.

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